“Going 8-8 with the team that we had last year, the youth that we had, the inexperience. The way we finished the season last year showed us that we had potential. The teams that we beat showed us we were capable.”

Asked if that meant they were a Super Bowl team (pushy New York media), Nelson replied: “That’s the beautiful thing about the playoffs: Anything can happen. So I’ll answer that again in [November] when we hopefully clinch a playoff spot.”

Of course, that’s all easier to say than do. The Jets haven’t made the playoffs since 2010.

Then again, they’re the Jets, so the saying is part of the charm, even if it takes them a few years to actually believe the words flying out of their mouths.

18 responses to “David Nelson actually believes the Jets are a playoff team”

They are building the right way. They are young, under the cap, and have players with good upside. They also have a coach they believe in who is much less wreckless. Rex is about to make another surge….but Nelson, as much as I like him, is no lock to make the roster.

I am not a Jet fan, but there is nothing surprising or strange about a player on a team that went 8-8 believing his team is a playoff team. 37.5% of NFL teams make the playoffs. Most 10-6 teams make it. Some 9-7 teams make it. The Jets don’t face some insurmountable obstacles. They could make or miss the playoffs without it being surprising.

Any player on the Cowboys, Steelers, Ravens, Giants or Bears should feel his team is a playoff team. Most of those teams won’t make it. Some team with a bad record last year like the Vikings, Redskins, Bills or Buccaneers will probably make the playoffs. It happens every year. Nothing surprising about it.

PFT articles this month have been like 80% towards ‘Player X thinks he’s in the best shape of his career and is primed for a breakout season’ or ‘Coach Y thinks his team is going to be great this year with all of the new addtions’, blah, blah, blah…Most of them I read are reported at face value. Then I read this one and it’s presented as “Isn’t it cute that a Jets player ACTUALLY believes his team can make the playoffs?” with all the standard ‘Jets haven’t made the playoffs in 3 years!” nonsense that always gets trotted out.

I will say that last year, I had zero hope that we were going to be anything more than a 4-5 win team and hoped that some young guys flashed some promise. Instead, we beat most pundit expectations by 3-4 wins, were fighting for a wild card heading into December and knocked a team out of the playoffs when we had nothing to fight for (except Rex’s job perhaps). And like every other team out there, we plugged some holes and got better in theory.

So…Yeah, I think we have a legit shot at making the playoffs this year…Am I predicting Superbowl? Heck, no. Most likely a WC spot with a puncher’s chance at the AFC East crown if Brady goes down or finally succumbs to age (better chance of him going down unfortunately). And it’s not quaint to be thinking playoffs…

Some of you journalists make me laugh. What is any athlete supposed to say about his team? That he doesn’t think his team is good enough to make the playoffs? Of course he thinks they are. If a player doesn’t feel that way about his team in July and August, then what the hell is he doing?

Actually…point out the story where Player X says, “You know, we’re probably a 3-4 win team this year. We have no QB and our defense is mediocre at best. Maybe we’ll get the first draft pick next offseason and finally get that QB we can build around.”

Now THAT would be newsworthy…and that player would most likely be out on his butt in short order…

The author’s sarcasm is not only unwarranted, but also reveals his lack of football knowledge. Why does it seem so farfetched that an 8-8 team that was one game out last season can’t make the playoffs out of a weaker conference when the rookie QB has had a full offseason, some amount of talent was added to the empty offensive cupboard, and more young talent was also added on defense? I’m not a Jets fan, but a few new teams make the playoffs every year that the “experts” didn’t see coming, so why not the Jets?

The sarcastic “actually” in the headline really irritates me as a Jets fan. You idiots even ranked us near enough to the top 6 in the AFC that it wouldn’t be that crazy according to your OWN power rankings!